Bungie may be headed to Mercury for its next Destiny in-game event, as reported by Eurogamer.
All players who logged in over the past weekend have been awarded a special emblem, Rising Light, as a thank you from Bungie for playing the game. Bungie advertised the free gift by mentioning the "Days of the Dawning", a reference to the fact that the year has just started but also pointing to new, hidden items found on the game's servers after the latest update in December.
The names of these items relate to an upcoming in-game event called The Dawning and include quests and masks. They're still viewable on Destiny's servers. In December Bungie wrote in a blog post that the next event would be another Halloween-style mask-based event.
The new emblem for players seems to depict Vex architecture on Mercury with the Sun in the background. A few PvP maps and a hidden area for those who complete flawless Trials of Osiris matches are available on Mercury but given that it's the only planet in the inner-solar system not yet explorable in Destiny it seems quite possible Bungie will expand it.
Mercury was once set to feature more prominently in the game, before the game was retooled and rewritten a year before launch. Initially, the planet was home to key character called Osiris, who was cut when the rewrite happened. One of his disciples made his way into the game with the launch of the House of Wolves DLC last summer, along with the Trials of Osiris event. There are numerous references to Osiris in the game's Grimoire lore cards and there's plenty of speculation that Mercury, and possibly Osiris, will feature in a big way in Destiny's sequel, which is rumoured to launch this autumn.
We'll hopefully know more when Bungie officially announces The Dawning.